Consumers lose

What is it Republicans in the U.S. Senate have against American consumers knocked flat by abusive mortgage companies, credit reporting agencies, payday lenders and debt collectors?

Once again the GOP lined up behind their Wall Street patrons and the enemies of ordinary citizens trying to recover from the flimflams that helped bring on the Great Recession.

They refused to end debate on confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, oh by the way, created by Congress.

The bureau, a product of the none-too-muscular Dodd-Frank reform law, is an attempt to restore a measure of oversight to banks and financial services after it had been stripped away. The July 2010 legislation was a direct result of the economy’s implosion in 2008.

Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, has a solid reputation. No one disputes his credentials or capacities. What the GOP objects to is anyone with the authority to blow the whistle on scandalous interest rates and fees, and clear-as-mud mortgage and credit language.

The Republican cover story is that the agency is too powerful and independent. Yes, and their point would be?

Senators want to limit the bureau’s budget and undo its authority. Never mind that the legislation already allows the heads of other major federal agencies — the Financial Stability Oversight Council — to overturn regulations with a two-thirds vote.

These same senators pledged last spring to stymie confirmation until the bureau was neutered. It was the same mindless pursuit of gridlock that comes with signing a promise not to allow any new taxes.

President Barack Obama could appoint Cordray while Congress is on holiday recess. The GOP is just as likely to defend its campaign-cash-providing patrons with a parliamentary maneuver that never formally adjourns the Senate.

“We’re not giving up on this,” Obama said last week. He should quit groping for a make-nice compromise and hold the Senate’s self-serving obstinacy up to public scrutiny.

Consumers will literally pay a price for the GOP’s lucrative stubbornness.